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Our Tourism Product
By Earle Clarke
Dear Reader, I will just divert from the topic to inform you about an experience I had just the other day. I was downtown, Basseterre, when I met a very good friend of mine. He greeted me with these words “Man, you always writing about the same thing every week.” I was amazed that he uttered those words. Apparently, he was greatly disturbed about the articles I wrote about the behaviour of Mr. Gant visa vis-à-vis, the Electoral Reform and especially when I referred to the back ground of certain persons in that article.
I was looking out for my friend to shake my hand and to congratulate me for opening his eyes as to where folks like us came from so that, although he is a professional today, he would stay humble and grounded with the ordinary folks who support his business on a daily basis.
But no! these dangerous people who want to forget their groundings, who want to forget their past, who do not, would not, dare not, attempt to and are ever fearful to look back, are hell bent on trying to fool off the ordinary people, while, at the same time, aligning themselves with whose gate they could not knock, never mind to enter the premises, in order to become the new Black Massas of our people and the country.
My articles remind them of who they really are. My articles are like daggers, digging at their consciences. My articles are forcing them to halt their deception and they are presented with a real battle within themselves. I cause my good friend to look at himself in the mirror. I challenge my good friend to tell his children from whence he came. I also challenge him to tell his customers how he struggled through life as a young boy; the deprivation he suffered as a young boy growing up
Let him bare his soul. I would make him a better person and he would be humble. He would then be able to walk the streets in a friendly manner and he would be loved and appreciated for who he is, just like how I am respected for who I am.
Now to the topic at hand Hereto, I express two experiences I had the other day. I was called to a certain hotel the other day to massage a guest. While massaging the guest, he was praising a certain Taxi Driver who was driving him around. I joined with him and also praised up the Taxi Driver, because he was a Kittitian and, even though we are on different sides of the political fence, I could not bad-talk him to a stranger. He is a Kittitian, he lives here, and he is my brother and fellow Kittitian.
It was my duty to praise him up, to big him up, to lift him high. The guest was pleased with the massage, so he made a date for another. While massaging him, he said Earle, do you know that theTaxi Driver was very surprised that you said all those nice things about him, do you speak to one another?
I replied that we have had our differences, but a good man is a good man – period. The guest paused then and said, “Earle, I believe, from the reaction of the Taxi Driver, if I had known about you before you massaged me and I asked him about you, he would not have said about you, what you said about him.” This story could be looked at in a different light.
St. Kitts is a paradise. Everybody who visits falls in love with its enchantment, yet, we Taxi Drivers go about and say all kings of evil things about it. We encourage visitors not to return, because the island is no good. Oh how St. Kitts must grieve with shame and cry in agony when we do her that.
Why do we have to allow our political affiliations to hurt the good name or the good image of the country? Why can’t we see St. Kitts as our own country and better than others?
I saw the Taxi Driver as a Kittitian, a brother, who, misguided as he is in supporting a party whose predecessors oppressed and exploited his fore parents and whose successor banded himself with those oppressors to keep his people down, was, nevertheless, still a Kittitian and a brother.
I could not bad-talk him to a total stranger. I would argue politics with him, but, if a stranger asks about him, I would praise him up. We have our political affiliations, but that must not force us to say evil things about our country.
When I massage visitors and they ask about our political system, I don’t launch a barrage of dirt on Mr. Grant. I speak about him kindly. He is a lawyer. He came from a good family; he is respected in the community. That is for the visitor. If I go abroad, to the stranger, I will say the same things.
To the Kittitian at home and abroad, I would launch an attack on him. Our politics are our politics. Some people do not see it that way. Perhaps I think this way because of my maturity and the love for my country. One of the questions which should be asked when Taxi Drivers sit their exams is “In so many words, please dictate how much you love St. Kitts and what you would do to show that love and export that message of love to your visitors, your guests, your friends and family abroad.”
The next experience I had was that of a female Kittitian who supports The People’s Action Movement (PAM). I was speaking with a group of Kittitian women in downtown Basseterre and we were conversing about the beauty of St. Kitts; what it has to offer and comparing it to other islands.
We were each asking the question, “Why do Kittitians say such bad things about the country when it is far better than many of the places they had visited?
One of the ladies related a story which one of the Indian business men at Port Zante relayed to her. This lady came into his store and began cursing the government. she went up to one of the Indians and asked “What all you see in this God-forsaken country, to come and say all you setting up business here, in this God forsaken country? All you couldn’t go no where else? The lady said that the Indian gentleman said to her “We see what you cannot see.”
Can our tourism product survive with this lack of love for our country? Ellie Matt’s song, St. Kitts, I Love you,” should be played or sung after our National Anthem is played. Every young child must learn that song from pre-school and sing it until he or she leaves school. This song must cement itself into the deepest recesses of our psyche, so that it becomes part of the band wave of the mind. The first word or words to come out of their mouths, after this exercise is introduced, is, “St. Kitts, or I love St. Kitts.”
If something is not done to change the attitude of our citizens, the tourist product and all its affiliates would disappear totally – forever – goodbye – gone.
My friend, who criticized me for writing the same thing over and over again, will have to be told, that, in every educational process, the teacher does not start the lesson in the middle of the chapter of the book. The teacher starts at chapter one and page one. Neither does that teacher starts chapter one today and goes to chapter two, tomorrow. The teacher either gives home work on Chapter one or he/she asks questions about chapter one to ensure that all the students understand the particular chapter.
I am trying or attempting to get the citizens of this country to look at the treachery they are heaping on the country. They are destroying the tourism product of the country and, irregardless of who is in power; all of us will suffer dire consequences, if the tourist industry disappears.
Port Zante will become a Ghost Town. Then is when St. Kitts will become a God forsaken place. Don’t let us play politics with our tourism industry. Say good tings about your country. We are better than a lot of other places out there. We are on the move.
Everybody is flocking to our shores and wants to live here. What are they seeing that we are not seeing? Our politics is our politics, but St. Kitts should be above our petty personal politics. If LABOUR is in power, we should talk well about St. Kitts. If PAM is in power, we should all talk good about St. Kitts; this idea of mashing up the country because we do not like the government of the day, is pure nonsense.
We must look at what we have to offer the visitor. Advertise what we have, be proud of what we have, improve on what we have and find means and way to introduce new facilities to complement what we have.
NOTE. The opinion in the above article is not necessarily the view and opinion of the Comunications Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister (CUOPM). It is however distributed as additional information to the ongoing politica, social and cultural debate in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis.
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